With a household electric appliance installed in a house having a network connection function and being connected to a server device outside the house, the server device can know the utilization status of the household electric appliance. For example, a server device can automatically obtain, from a refrigerator installed in a house, the number of times the door has been opened/closed and time information of the opening/closing of the door, without accepting an input operation from a user. A server device can automatically obtain, from a washing machine installed in a house, information such as the washing start time, without accepting an input operation from a user.
Such information obtained during use of household electric appliances is useful information, for manufacturers manufacturing household electric appliances, for knowing the utilization status of the users, and it has been known that it is helpful for future product improvements or marketing.
Patent Literature 1 discloses a technique whereby a washing machine determines the type of the detergent put in (“powder synthetic detergent”, “soap powder”, or “liquid detergent”) so as to put in an amount of disinfectant that is suitable for the type of the detergent.
However, the household electric appliance (washing machine) of Patent Literature 1 performs the same process for detergents of the same type (e.g., “soap powders”) even if the detergents are of different makers, and is not capable of determining the maker or the product name of a consumer good (e.g., a detergent) used.